Zhao Bing was not surprised that this army liked pasta and also indicated that he understood. After the Battle of Ezhou in Jiangnan, the Song army captured more than 20,000 Mongolian and Yuan Han troops. At that time, no one was willing to accept these prisoners. They must be newly recovered places. So many prisoners were left in one place, which was an unstable factor. In addition, most of these Han troops were Han people in the Central Plains, and in the eyes of the Song people, they were almost the same as barbarians, so it was recommended that they be executed all of them, which had already been eliminated.

However, Zhao Bing was different from them. He felt that after the Northern Expedition, these Han troops were not only familiar with the situation, but also good at riding and shooting. After training, they were an available army. Therefore, they were brought back to Jiangdong. After selection, the old and weak were eliminated, the young and strong were left for training, and the officers were added. Some new troops were formed and two brigades were reorganized, with the number 4th Brigade and the Fifth Brigade of the Guards.

However, considering the special nature of this army, the newly formed two brigades were not stationed in Jingji like other armies, but were stationed in Shaoxing and Jiaxing. On this expedition, Zhao Bing led a regiment of the Guard Brigade, the First Brigade, the Cavalry Brigade, the Fourth Brigade, the Fifth Brigade, and the Bailout Brigade. The Second Brigade, the Third Brigade and the Artillery Brigade, as the main force, were assigned to the Jiangdong Division to command the enemy invading the southern invasion.

Everyone knows that northerners are good at noodles, while southerners like rice. As an army mainly composed of northerners, it is not surprising that they don’t like to eat rice and prefer to drink noodle soup. Isn’t it okay to fully equip this quick food similar to instant noodles with the troops? Zhao Bing can only say sorry, I really can’t do it now!

When someone asks, what did the ancient army usually eat? How were the rations made in the ancient army? Are there any other similar inventions that are against the sky? To answer these questions, you must first ask what is in the field!

Simply put, before the Qin and Han dynasties, the north was drought-resistant millet, that is, millet as the staple food; the cultivation of wheat and barley gradually expanded in the Han Dynasty, but ordinary people could only eat wheat rice cooked directly from wheat grains, and various pasta made from flour such as cakes and steamed buns, which were only enjoyed by the upper class; and at this time, rice was only grown in the south, and the yield was far lower than that of today; as for high-yield crops such as corn, sweet potatoes, and peanuts, it was all in the middle and late Ming Dynasty.

Therefore, what to eat was strongly regional in ancient times, so there was a saying that millet rice was popular in the north and rice was popular in the south. At the moment, the Song Dynasty lost Jiangbei and also lost wheat. The millet production area was also lost. Although rice and wheat were planted in some areas in the south of the Yangtze River, it was impossible to eat white flour every day. In the early days, the yield per mu was low, and people did not do deep processing to eat wheat, and cooked it directly into wheat rice like rice. This kind of wheat rice tasted very poor and was often regarded as coarse food, so flour was relatively scarce at this time.

War is an extremely resource-consuming activity, so the army naturally has more and more food and what is cheaper. From the Qin and Han Dynasties to the Sui and Tang Dynasties, China's political center has been in Guanzhong and Luoyang. The staple food in the army is also mainly millet. After all, corn is the main tax body, and rice can only be regarded as "mixed grains". Jiangnan is the main producing area of ​​rice, so rice is naturally the main food in the army.

Next, we need to solve the problem of how to eat. After all, food cannot be eaten raw, and of course it is also expelled from hunger, but constipation or diarrhea is certain. In addition, military rations must also be considered to be special in the army. It is unlikely to study cooking skills calmly like at home, so it is also necessary to pursue convenience, speed and storage resistance. The ideal thing is of course to be carried with you, and you can eat it when you take it out, and you can replenish energy at any time during the war.

On the basis of convenience and speed, the taste of military rations should be considered appropriately, that is, from eating full to eating better. After all, soldiers are also human beings, and they can’t stand eating coarse grains every day. In history, there were indeed examples of winning battles after improving food during the Northern and Southern Dynasties. Zhao Bing still remembers that the Song Dynasty also had an extreme incident where "the mountains of abandoned corn were accumulated, while the Song army was mostly from Fujian, Jiang and Zhejiang, and they could not eat millet, so there were dead every day."

Eating is also a combat power. This was not only in ancient times, but also in modern times. Zhao Bing listened more about this and practiced it as truth. After experiencing the initial financial difficulties of the General Office, his army also bid farewell to the days when rice was dried every day, and as the economic situation improved, the army's meal expenses were continuously increased and strict food standards were established.

Everyone knows that when the army is stationed in the camp on weekdays, it is not difficult to open fire and cook, but eating during war is a troublesome, and Zhao Bing also puts this issue on the agenda. But he soon realized that in ancient times, when modern preservation and production technology were lacking, it was really not an easy thing to solve the problem of eating in a field state.

After investigation and research, Zhao Bing found that there was not no field food in ancient times. If the noodles are similar to the current instant noodles, then the duck rice is very close to the boxed rice. This was the invention of Emperor Wen of Chen during the Five Dynasties. On the eve of the attack on the Northern Qi Dynasty, he cooked rice and cooked ducks, then wrapped the rice with lotus leaves, put duck meat on it, and distributed it to each soldier for breakfast.

In addition, the famous military rations related to include Zhuge Liang's steamed buns (with stuffing) and Guokui. This is very common in Sichuan and Shaanxi, and the taste is naturally not talked about, but it is indeed convenient to carry and resistant to storage, which can be regarded as a very practical invention. Qi Jiguang's "light cake" is even more portable. He rolls the kneaded dough into a cake shape, then grills it in a charcoal stove, and finally pierces the middle and hangs it directly on the soldier. He pulls two pieces when he is hungry. He can also add different ingredients according to different tastes, which are very reliable field rations. And the national-level food of steamed buns are basically known to everyone.

However, these are temporary meals. In most cases, the army still cooked rice or corn into rice or porridge to eat. As for the improvement of military rations in later generations, most of them were made around pasta. The reason why Zhao Bing Ji's rice was difficult to make field rations is because the drying technology has not been in line, resulting in nutritional deficiency and poor taste. It is known that the maturity of the rapid freeze-drying technology in the 21st century was solved.

However, Zhao Bing knew that rice was used as fast food ration in the Ming Dynasty army, which was to dry the cooked rice and then transport it as military rations. When needed, it was rinsed with hot water and it was edible. The taste and nutrition were naturally not considered. In short, the direction of efforts of the ancient army was to squeeze out the process of cooking fires and cook as much as possible from the battlefield.

As for side food, fresh meat and vegetables can be eaten on the battlefield, not to mention in ancient times, even with diversified supply methods in modern times, the solution at this time is to marinate with salt. Regarding cured meat, the most famous one is naturally Jinhua ham. Meat can also be made into various sauces, and it plays a very important role in the daily life of soldiers. Fresh vegetables and meat are out of reach. Various sauces that taste salt in the war are also the only food and seasonings.

Therefore, in the improvement of field food, Zhao Bing spent a lot of effort. He knew that if he wanted soldiers to ensure physical strength during wartime, it was not only as simple as eating, but also necessary nutrition and supplementation of various vitamins. This would reduce the occurrence of disease and prevent combat effectiveness from decreasing. When technical problems were difficult to solve, he could only do his best.

In the past, military rations were generally supplied with shelled rice and wheat grains. They were transported to the military camp and then processed again, which was considered to be easy to preserve. However, Zhao Bing thought that it was okay on weekdays, but there were great disadvantages in wartime. First of all, it wasted precious transportation capacity and could not be used directly after transportation. People still needed to be drawn to pound them by hand, which took time and wasted time. Therefore, the military rations he ordered must be processed before they could be transported to the army, and this was even more so during wartime.

The factors of geography and planting habits make the wheat planting area small, which is difficult to change. Therefore, in addition to using flour as a strategic reserve, Zhao Bing also focused his ideas on rice. The rice noodles in later generations were not only easy to make, but also resistant to storage and transportation after drying. When eating, just cook them in boiling water and season them with sauce. The noodles that are often eaten in the north are similar. After trial production, they became one of the spare items in the wartime army.

Another use of rice is that Zhao Bing imitates the method of making fried noodles. He fryed the rice and ground it into powder and added seasonings such as oil, salt, bean flour and sesame. It can be eaten dry when eating, or brewed in hot water, but don’t think about the taste. Then, he further improved the fried rice and compressed and solidified the fried noodles, which became a compressed biscuit, and could make a variety of flavors.

As for side food, Zhao Bing used the jerky and dried fish pickled in the old days, but also used smoked methods to make bacon and sausages that are easy to preserve. In addition, in order to solve the problem of lack of vegetables, in addition to pickling pickles, dehydrated vegetables became the best choice. He used the period when vegetables were abundant in spring and summer to dry and dehydrate seasonal vegetables to make dried vegetables. This can not only be eaten in wartime, but also supplemented when the green and yellow are not in combination in winter.
Chapter completed!